I have commissioned a Model A-2c (000 sized, 14-fret, cutaway) from West Paris, ME luthier Laurent Brondel. This commission will be Laurent's 115th guitar since "putting out his shingle" as a luthier back in 2006.
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/Site/Home.html
I have played Laurent’s guitars on two occasions when he exhibited them at The Woodstock Invitational Luthier’s Showcase in 2013 and 2014. I was taken by the traditional balance in their timbre and how sensitively they responded to my touch. I also admired the high quality of his craftsmanship along with the simple elegance of his signature design aesthetic.
Since I already have BRW/Engelmann and BL Maple/German 000 sized guitars from two other fine luthiers in my collection; adding a meaty, midrange rich, Mahogany/Red Spruce 000 from Laurent is a welcome addition to the mix. A 000 sized guitar made from Red Spruce top, Honduran Mahogany body and Brazlian Rosewood bridge and fingerboard is a classic combination.
Here are the basic specifications of the guitar:
Model: A-2
Top Wood: Red Spruce
Body Wood: 2-Piece, Large Block Mottled, Honduran Mahogany
Neck: 1-Piece, Honduran Mahogany
Fingerboard: Brazilian Rosewood
Bridge: Brazilian Rosewood
Cutaway Type: Venetian
Scale Length: 25.0”
Nut Width: 1.75”
String Spacing: 2.3125”
Fret Wire: Jescar EVO FS43080
Tuners: Waverly, Gold w/ custom Brazilian Rosewood Buttons
Finish: Oil Varnish
Case: Hoffee
For this A-2, we have chosen a set of "old growth" Honduran Mahogany which Laurent purchased about 2-years ago in 2013 from tonewood purveyor Tom Thiel (Northwind Tonewoods,
http://northwindtonewood.com/about/). Laurent described the set as being quite dense for mahogany.
After we selected it for my commission, I reached out and spoke with Tom and he told me the provenance of the wood. He purchased the wood from an Estate in the form of flitch-matched boards and planks of this "old growth" mahogany in NYC in late 2012. They were able to rearrange them into their positions in the log. The wood had originally been purchased by a NYC cabinetmaking shop from Albert Constantine (
http://www.constantines.com/constantineshistory.aspx) in the 1960s. Constantine had originally flitched the logs and the cabinet maker (Albert Braumfelds), had kept them in sequence in his store room. So Tom was able to recreate "true flitch-maps” of the logs, despite not having sawed them himself. The 500 board feet of well-seasoned boards up to 30" wide. The boards varied in their figure from ribbon stripe, block mottle, rolling wave, curl, quartered and plain sawn figure.
In tropical hardwoods like mahogany, sometimes spiral grain reverses at periodic intervals and produces a condition called "interlocked grain". When interlocked grain is produced uniformly and regularly in a tree and the log is quartersawn, a series of longitudinal parallel stripes are exhibited by the wood. These stripes alternate in color shades (dark, light, dark, light, etc.). A variation of stripe figure that sometimes occurs presenting a broken or interrupted stripe. This figure is caused by an indistinct, interlocked grain in combination with poorly developed wavy grain in the wood.
The type of figure that this set has is quite unusual. It has what is known in the veneer trade as a "large block mottle" figure. It is formed primarily upon the stripe formed by interlocking grain of the wood. When the cross wrinkles are deep, somewhat regular and spaced about the width of the stripe, the figure is known as "block mottle". This type of display in mahogany is really a scaled-up "Bees Wing" type figure.
Here is the back and side set:
Here is the raw set with some naphtha wiped on to bring out the figure.
As Laurent sends me shots of the build, I will post them on this thread.